


Last Words (Prompt)

by Dangerousandbeautiful



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-04-29
Packaged: 2018-03-26 07:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3841597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangerousandbeautiful/pseuds/Dangerousandbeautiful
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the prompt I was given for the first Rivamika Jam. Mikasa works in the Trost prison and meets the infamous Underground thug that was finally captured.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Words (Prompt)

Two days he’d been locked in the slammer. Two days without food, without company, without information. Two days with nothing but his thoughts.

Levi had been caught. His day had finally come; he’d pissed off the wrong person for the last time. A life of plundering and petty thievery had caught up to him, and now sitting in a lone cell in God-knew-where, hungry and tired, the cynical man did not know what to think. The only condolence he had left was that Isabel and Farlan were not here with him, not facing the same gruesome fate, although he would kill for their company at the moment.

He was glad his comrades were confined to the Underground for once. This way they would not see their leader’s execution, for he was sure to be made an example of in front of all of Trost.

Execution, he mouthed…What a fancy word these above-ground pigs had for murder. Levi’s head dropped between his knees and tried not to think about his upcoming death. He stared at the dirty walls and their coated dust layer.

A while later, Mikasa Ackerman walked through the halls of Trost’s courthouse, aiming for the cafeteria. The young woman’s face resembled pale steel, her anger simmering just below the surface. The idiots in the military police failed to tell her that there was a new prisoner locked away underneath the courthouse. The task of feeding the prisoners had become her job as of late. She had grown sick of the detainees fainting in their cells or dying of starvation because of the lack of care from the prison guards on duty. Mikasa knew she should be head of the military by now; she would be if only the government wasn’t full of sexist pigs.

Years ago when the prodigy graduated from the training academy, the military police demanded her presence in the center of the city. Her prowess was needed for a while, but once she pissed off one of her leaders, calling him out on his poor skill and cowardice, she was sent to work as a lowly prison guard. She’d taken the blow with her head high, however, and decided to take this job as an opportunity to set things straight in the crumbling city piece-by-piece if need be. Eren had joined the Scouts along with Armin. Leaving him behind had been the hardest thing she’d ever done, but it was he who assured her that her place was here, and her making the world inside the walls a better place would make him happy. Now she wondered what her brother would think, his amazing sister, number one of the 104th, cleaning bathrooms and feeding prisoners.

“You’re looking a little sulkier than usual, Mikasa,” the cafeteria server said to her as she handed him her plate. “Something wrong?” Mikasa had taken a liking to the bulky, bald headed man on day one of her new job. She didn’t make friends easily, but Jorn had practically made her talk back to him.

“No, just pissed that I wasn’t informed of the new prisoner until two days after his capture,” she replied heavily.

“Ah. I guess this is for him?” Jorn said, placing the gumpy macaroni onto the plate. She nodded.

“Poor soul. Must’ve really pissed off one of the officers for them to wait two whole days to tell you. Wonder what he did.”

“Probably stole a loaf of bread. The usual,” she replied, following him as he loaded the plate.

“I would hate to sleep in my own shit until the gallows,” said Jorn.

“Yeah, well, guess who has to clean it once they’re dead,” she said, rolling her eyes. She instantly felt cold-hearted, though. She couldn’t help but imagining herself in their position sometimes. If Carla and Grisha Yeager had not taken her in all those years ago, who knew what would have become of her. She may have lived on the streets as well, scavenging for food, stealing. Too many people lived that life inside the walls. She had been very lucky, despite everything. Sometimes she talked to the crooks when she brought their meals. If they were sentenced to death, she always liked to converse with them. A dying man's words always seemed interesting to her. Perhaps she had grown used to being the outcast here, and felt a small kinship with those who had broken the rules in this shit of a city. And she knew no one else would speak with them before their death. She liked to think they said their last words to her.

Jorn handed her the plate of food. She noticed the extra helping of broccoli and looked up at him gratefully. He nodded and gestured her out of the door.

******

Levi heard the main door to the cells open to his right. The smell of cheese and vegetables hit his dulled senses, and his stomach groaned uncomfortably. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a prison guard walk up to his cell.

“I’ve brought you a meal,” the woman said, walking up to the bars and opening the door at the bottom before pushing the tray of food through.

Mikasa waited for him to say something, but he would not even look her way. He had caked blood above his eyebrow where he’d been hit by his captors. He looked so small, curled up against the wall. She pitied him like she pitied the others.

“Eat. I’m sure your starving,” she ordered. His stomach rumbled again, loud and empty. “Eat and I’ll let you into the lavatory.”  
He quickly rose at that, grabbed the food and walked back to his spot. Mikasa sat on the stool next to his cell and waited. 

“Would you like to know anything? I’m sorry I haven’t been here. I’m afraid I wasn’t informed of your presence until this morning.” Sometimes the prisoners wanted to know how many days they had left, and sometimes they didn’t.

He didn’t reply, simply kept eating.

“Would you care to tell me what reason you’re being sent to the gallows?” she asked. “It’s been a long time since we had an execution…”

He paused. “Apparently I’ve been a ‘pain in the MP’s ass for the last five years’,” he said, quoting the officer who’d kicked his face. “Funny, they’ve been a pain in mine for just as long.”

“Where are you from? I don’t recognize your accent,” she said.

He took another bite of his broccoli and said, “Underground.”

Oh, Mikasa thought. That explained a lot. “You’re Levi, aren’t you?” He nodded.  
“I didn’t know they had captured you,” she said. She’d heard many times about the Underground clean freak thief. He had truly been escaping the MP for a very long time, from what she’d been told. It was no wonder they had not wanted him fed.

He shrugged. “Couldn’t run forever, I suppose. The higher-ups have been wanting me for a while now.”

“You must’ve killed many people to deserve the gallows,” Mikasa said. Normally she was not so brisk with the detainees, but surely a man like him was not so sensitive.

He chuckled darkly. “I haven’t killed anyone in a long, long time.”

Mikasa did not know what to make of that. She instructed him to put his back to the bars so she could handcuff him. Once out of his cell, she said, “Don’t try anything. You may be the strongest criminal out there, but you don’t want to cross me.”

“Oh, really?” he said condescendingly, “If you’re so strong, why are you working in the prison?”

She walked, holding his arm. Levi could feel the strength in her toned arms. “Well, let’s just say I pissed off the wrong person, not unlike you.”  
Mikasa returned the mysterious prisoner back to his cell and resituated herself in the uncomfortable stool beside it. She noticed that the caked blood on his temple was gone. She'd heard he was a clean freak, and wondered just how bothered he'd been the last two days locked up. He surprisingly smelled good for someone who hadn't had a bath or a toilet.

"How is the Underground?" She asked, genuinely curious. "I've never been."  
"It's a fucking vacation, I'm surprised," he said sarcastically. Levi did not understand the woman's...kindness toward him? He wasn't sure 'kind' was the word he was looking for. Perhaps guarded curiosity was a better term. She was not being evil like the rest of her comrades, but he did not understand why, nor did he really care. 

Mikasa said nothing; she knew he was angry. Angry to have been caught, to be executed in a day's time. She wondered if he'd ever had a meal so large as the one she’d given him, and decided probably not. She was grateful to Jorn for that.  
He continued after a moment, this time serious. "It's Hell. A human body needs sunlight to survive, and the people are wasting away. There are no resources. People live in filth, and die in filth. And no one cares. It gets worse every year. More deaths, more malnourished children. And the taxes...we have to pay taxes to the above ground, but there are no jobs, no one makes money unless they sell their own food or products to you people. Why should we pay taxes to a government that won't even let us set foot on 'their land'?" He said. His voice remained calm throughout, but Mikasa could sense the anger thick in his words.

She had not heard much about the Underground, honestly. It was kept very hush, a secret the government apparently wanted no one to know much about. If what Levi was saying was true, she could see why. And Mikasa wasn't sure why, but she believed him. 

"I did not think you were this talkative," Mikasa replied. She was truly surprised by his outburst. He was so silent before.

He rolled his eyes. "I've always been talkative. Why does everyone say that?"  
Mikasa chuckled. "Maybe people think you're the silent, brooding type."  
"Is that what you thought of me, Cadet? I'm not on some silly romance novel," he said.

You could be, Mikasa thought, staring at his dark hair and how it fell just over his light blue eyes. His lips were thin, a pale pink to go with his alabaster skin. Looking at him now, Mikasa did not think he was small. His presence took up the entire cell, and she couldn't help admiring the musculature under his dirty shirt. How did a man stay so fit living in such bad conditions? She had a certain respect for him.

"So what did you do, if you don't mind me asking?" She knew he would mind, but asked anyway.

"I stole food. A lot of food. And water, and clothing...and money…a lot of money."

"From the Underground?"

"I just told you no one there has those kind of resources. No, I stole from the fat pigs that came by every once in a while. I guess one swine just got angry enough to hire the Survey Corps plus the MP. Not that the MP ever could catch us. But the Scouting Legion? They're a lot more experienced in the 3DMG. Have you ever even used the 3DMG?"

"Yes, and I graduated first in my class," she tried to say with pride. But she knew how good he was, the rumors were that he had taught himself. Mikasa felt her talent paled in comparison, especially with how rusty she must have become in the last year. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had needed to wear her gear.

“How impressive,” he said, his tone dripping with contempt.

“You know, not everyone above ground lives like you seem to think,” she said.

“Oh?”

“We’re not all fat politicians who walk on others,” she continued.

He paused a moment. “Well, it’s not like I would know. I’m just an Underground thief.”

Mikasa felt the unfamiliar throes of pity in her gut.

“Who’d you kill?” she asked quietly.

“Huh?”

“Earlier, you said you hadn’t killed someone in a long, long time. Who was it?”

He shifted uncomfortably against the wall.

“Just some lowlifes from the Underground,” he answered.

“Why?”

“They tried to kill my mother. I still don’t know why. It’s not like we had anything worth taking. Although, I seem to remember being chased a lot as kid. Mom was always hiding from someone. She wouldn’t tell me what for…” he drifted off, lost in his own memories. He did not want to think of her at a time like this, but perhaps this was one of the last times he would ever be able to remember her. Or maybe he would be with her soon.

Mikasa leaned her chin into her hands, listening intently. This was the most interesting conversation she had had in months.

“Where is she now?” Mikasa asked.

“She died a year later from the plague. Apparently the sickness broke out up here, so guess where every dying person and their disgusting germs were sent to die with them?” He pointed his index finger to the ground.

Mikasa grimaced. The plague, she thought. She remembered Dr. Yeager talking about it years ago; everyone had thanked him for saving them from the sickness back in Shinganshina. She guessed it shouldn’t be such a surprise that not every city was so fortunate to have a good doctor.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

She got up from her seat. “I have to go. I’ll be back tomorrow,” She picked up the empty tray and saw him curl back up against the wall. “It’s funny, you know,” she said, pausing in the doorway. “Normally prisoner’s last words to me are begging for mercy or trying to convince me of their innocence. But not you.” She gave him one last curious look before walking out.

Their conversation stuck in her head all throughout the day. She could not get over his penetrating gaze, and the way his voice sounded echoed in the cell hall.

The next morning Mikasa rushed to the cafeteria to get her own breakfast and Levi’s last meal. She decided to just bring her own food to the prison, and eat with him, even though it sounded strange in her head.

She was oddly excited to see the Underground thug again. The night before she had imagined what they would talk about today, and tried not to think about his inevitable death on the morrow. She’d even briefly contemplated freeing him—he wasn’t so bad, after all. But Mikasa knew her own head would be on the line then, and the prisoner wasn’t quite that special to her.

Mikasa unlocked the door to the prison hall and gasped in shock.

Levi was gone! The first cell he’d been in yesterday was already cleaned out. Stressed, Mikasa rushed through the hall, looking into the other empty five cells. Had they moved up his execution date? The thought enraged her.

She dropped both trays of food on the floor and marched out, headed for the Officer’s quarters. 

Lieutenant Cordwell jumped in his seat when the angry woman burst into his office.

“What did you do with my detainee?” she demanded. “He’d better not be dead already, Lieutenant,” Mikasa said, ignoring her required respect.

His arms rose defensively. “Nothing! I haven’t done anything!” he said. Suddenly Mikasa noticed the second presence in the room.

Commander Erwin Smith stood in her Cordwell’s office, tall, blond, and handsome. Mikasa brought herself to a salute immediately. Eren had written letters to her about Commander Smith. Her brother admired him very much.

Erwin smiled at her and returned her salute.

Cordwell regained his wits and said, “Commander, this is Cadet Mikasa Ackerman. She brings meals to the prisoners.”

“I remember you Ackerman. First of the 104th. I’ve also heard you’re worth a hundred soldiers. What are you doing as a prison guard?” Erwin asked her.

“I often ask myself the same thing, sir,” she replied.

“Well, if you’re referring to Levi,” Erwin continued, “I can explain. The Scouting Legion and the Military Police have come to an agreement. I noticed the young man’s talent when my men caught him the other day. We all decided that kind of prowess should not be wasted on the gallows.”

“Sir?” Mikasa asked, not quite understanding.

“Levi is on a carriage right now to Survey Corp’s headquarters. I got special permission for him to enroll in the Scouts as of today.”

“That’s...that’s great.” Mikasa stared at him, trying not to look as surprised as she felt. And relieved; Levi was free now, in a sense. She blinked a few times, still rolling his words in her brain. She probably would never see him again.

Erwin said a few more words to Cordwell before walking to the doorway. When he passed Mikasa, he put a large hand on her shoulder. “Cadet, Levi’s talent isn’t the only one being wasted here. We would welcome you with open arms should you wish to transfer. Or, rather, open wings,” he chuckled softly at his own joke and walked out.

Mikasa stared dumfounded at her Lieutenant. His face was red with embarrassment, and briefly Mikasa wondered what kind of blackmail Erwin had on the MP to be able to get away with this.

She walked out of the office, already planning a new letter to write her brother that night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
